Raspberry Swirl
by netgirly2k
Summary: The seduction of Inara Serra by Kaylee Frye. Sort of. Femslash.


Kaylee lay on her stomach on Inara's luxurious bed watching the companion screen clients for their stop over at Persephone, she popped another raspberry into her mouth.

"Are you sure that you don't mind me eating these?"

"Of course not, Kaylee. They were a gift from a client, you're welcome to eat as many as you like."

"Giving you fresh fruit like that, it's so..."

"Kind?" Inara offered.

"Decadent," Kaylee replied around a mouthful of raspberry, she pushed the bowl away, "Still if they were a present I shouldn't eat them all out from under you."

"Nonsense," Inara said, "what's mine is yours."

Kaylee couldn't stop grinning, even though her teeth were probably stained red. She had just about gotten used to their being an honest to God companion on board, but she didn't think she'd ever get used to someone as fancy as Inara wanting to be friends with a scruffy mechanic like her.

"Ooh, what about him, he's pretty," Kaylee said, looking at the very pretty boy on Inara's cortex screen, who was pleading for a night in Inara's company. Something that was, in Kaylee's opinion well worth pleading for.

"Kaylee," Inara admonished, turning off her screen and turning to face Kaylee, "it's not about looks. When a companion chooses a client we try to look beyond appearances, we try to see into their hearts, to see what sort of person they really are."

"Does that help if they're really hideous?" Kaylee asked, scooting up to kneel on the bed.

For a second Inara looked like she was about to launch into another long explanation of companion-client relations, but Kaylee's wide grin was infectious and the companion joined her friend in filling the shuttle with friendly laughter.

"Are there any boy companions?" Kaylee asked.

"There are some on the central planets, but I've never heard of any working this far out. Why?"

"Nothin'" Kaylee said sheepishly, "I thought that maybe a companion could see through all this grime is all. Plus sex with a real live companion, that'd be something to tell the grand kids about," she shrugged, "that's probably best, I don't think anyone as fancy and educated as a companion would want to be with me all covered in engine grease."

Inara crossed the room in three graceful steps and sat next to Kaylee on the bed. She wrapped her golden silk shawl around Kaylee's shoulder and pulled the mechanic close to her. "Kaylee, you are one of the most beautiful people I have ever met inside and out. And I can't imagine there being any companion in the system who wouldn't be pleased and honoured to have you as a client."

Inara picked a raspberry from the bowl that sat in front of Kaylee and held it up to Kaylee's lips. Kaylee smiled and took the fruit, her lips brushing against Inara's fingers. She curled up, laying her head on Inara's shoulder.

---

Kaylee couldn't get Inara's words out of her head 'Any companion,' Inara had said that any companion would be lucky to have her. Kaylee was aware that Inara had probably only said that cause it was a nifty turn of phrase and sounded better than 'some companions who aren't me and don't care for little things like breeding or cleanliness.'

Still Kaylee couldn't help but imagine, Inara was so glamorous and perfect, and Kaylee couldn't help but wonder how she'd look with her hair messed and Kaylee's lips on her skin. Kaylee didn't have to imagine long to know, Inara would look like sex.

Kaylee pushed the final gear back into place and stepped back to look at Serenity's engine. She'd always thought that a well maintained engine was one of the finest things in the verse, 'almost as fine as Inara.'

Kaylee wished her traitorous mind would stop thinking on Inara cause it wasn't ever gonna happen. Inara was a companion, a woman of the sunny and sparkling core planets, she wasn't like the farm boys and shop girls Kaylee had grown up with, she couldn't just walk up to Inara and say, "Hey, you're pretty, lets have some sex."

Finally satisfied with the condition of Serenity Kaylee wiped her hands on the legs of her overalls and headed out of the engine room.

"Kaylee, you got that engine running proper?"

"Won't find a better engine in the 'verse," Kaylee promised.

"Better be, I don't want to break down half way to Boros," Zoe said, continuing on past Kaylee. It was usually the captain who was always asking after Serenity, but Zoe had been in a bad mood for days now, ever since their pilot had declared his intentions towards her. Kaylee couldn't see what all the fussin' was about, Wash wasn't particularly to Kaylee's liking, but she reckoned he could be to Zoe's if she gave him a chance.

Sides they hardly spend any time planet side and it seemed to Kaylee that if they were going to have any fun at all it was going to have to be with each other. That train of thought brought Kaylee right back to Inara. Even Inara's finest and richest clients had to submit proposals to Inara before she would see them.

Kaylee stopped dead on her way to her bunk, swung round and headed up towards the second shuttle. The grav boost was broken had Kaylee hadn't got round to making it space worthy yet, but it had a working cortex screen. Firing up the screen, she hit the button to send a wave.

"Hey, 'Nara," Kaylee gave a little wave to the screen, "I've been thinking on what you said-"

---

Kaylee sometimes thought that everybody in the verse had a limited number of good ideas, the captain and Zoe, they had hundreds of good ideas, Jayne, he probably had about three or four. It seemed to Kaylee that she used up all her good ideas on making machines work better or faster and didn't have any left to spare. She must have been addle brained when she send that wave to Inara. Kaylee hadn't seen many of Inara's clients, but she didn't have to in order to know that none of them were mechanics in baggy overalls and combat boots with dirt under their fingernails.

She tried to creep quietly around the side of Inara's shuttle, it proved quite difficult as Kaylee had never moved quietly in her life. She had to get that message off Inara's cortex screen. If Inara never received it then she would never know how stupid Kaylee had been. They could carry as friends and Kaylee could put her full attention into making sure Serenity ran smooth.

In the entrance to the shuttle she could hear the rustle of movement, she turned to leave but she recognised the voice that was speaking, it was her own. She froze in the entrance, watching Inara listen to her proposal.

"-so if you want to, that'd be shiny. And if you don't that's shiny too and we don't have to talk about this again. Okay, Bye!" Kaylee remembered that she'd ended the message with another little wave.

"Oh, Kaylee," Inara said softly turning to face her. She was wearing a long skirt of deep blue embroidered with gold, the top that matched it stopped just under her breasts and her hair was brushed straight and smooth. Kaylee absent mindedly rubbed at the semi-permanent streak of engine grease on the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry 'Nara, I didn't mean to offend you or nothing. I'll go."

Kaylee turned to leave only to find Inara's hand on her cheek, hooking a runaway strand of hair behind Kaylee's ear, gently coaxing her to stay.

"I wasn't offended, far from it. I wasn't lying when I said that any companion would be honoured to consider you as a client."

"And this could be," Kaylee tried not to get distracted by Inara's thumb stroking along her jawline, but it was difficult, it was very distracting. "This could be strictly business-like. I could pay you, Captain finally got round to paying the crew."

"I don't want your money Kaylee, I can't contract with you as a companion." Inara said, her hand moving to the back of Kaylee's neck, her breath warm on Kaylee's cheek, "but I do want to do this, if you're sure you do?"

"_juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean-jan..._ i am I still talking?"

"Yes," Inara affirmed, her lips brushing across Kaylee's cheek.

"I should stop that," Kaylee breathed.

"You don't have to, but it may help."

"With the kissin'?" Kaylee asked hopefully.

For her answer Inara kissed her. And Kaylee swore she could hear music. Kaylee's last coherent though before she found herself nudging Inara backwards towards that decadent looking bed was that everyone should have companion training to learn how to kiss like Inara.


End file.
